Storehouse no.9 – Outdoor: A Preservation Success Story of the historic Franklin Laundry

Sam and Jill Johnson have a knack for turning ordinary spaces into something extraordinary. In fact, they have spent the last three years working to restore the former Franklin Laundry into their second retail location, Storehouse no.9 – Outdoor. 

Funny enough, Franklin Cleaners & Laundry started in 1910 with the slogan, “The Knack of Knowing How”. The business changed hands over the years, including once owned by Sam Ewin. Then in 1946, J. C. Anderson, the next owner of Franklin Laundry, built a brand new modern facility on the corner of 5th Avenue North and North Margin Street. It operated at this location for over five decades until the late 1990s.

The laundry was famous for its loud steam whistle that could be heard far and wide, which was blown during shift changes and lunch breaks. The staff was always friendly, service was exceptional, and kids loved their cherry suckers handed out to good boys and girls. Franklin Laundry was a beloved part of the Franklin community. (Make sure to see the vintage Franklin Laundry video at the end of our story).

Now, follow along as we take you on a journey of a family who did not give up on this building. Most people would not have had the fortitude to take on the challenges and perseverance it took to see this phenomenal property reimagined, even the new restrooms are works of art.

Reimagine Luxury Outdoor Living

You may have had the opportunity to see Jill’s incredible design work at her flagship location, Storehouse no.9 located at 320 4th Avenue North. Her aesthetic balances peaceful neutrals and dreamy white palates with modern design. In fact, she and her husband, Sam, turned a former private residence into a retail shop for home furnishings, curated gifts, and a design studio. 

Now with their second location only a block away at 252 5th Avenue North, Storehouse No.9 – Outdoor has everything you need to create luxurious outdoor living. You will find high-quality outdoor furnishings including chaise lounges, sofas, outdoor rugs, lighting, umbrellas, fountains, and entertaining pieces for al fresco dining.

Sadly, the building stood abandoned for 23 years because of complicated and impossible codes and zoning rules. Because of its location near the Harpeth River, the area has had a history of flooding. The Johnsons had the courage to take on this project and worked with the Historic Zoning Commission, City of Franklin, and FEMA to bring this wonderful building back to life. But it wasn’t easy.

One of the bright lights of the story is that Storehouse no.9 is a family affair. Three of their four children work with Sam and Jill, including Savannah, Mary, and Crawford. Sam Jr. also played an important role during renovations.  Mary has worked the retail store from day-one. Crawford manages their 615 Blinds business. Sam Jr. helped with the renovations and cost savings on both buildings, and currently lives in Birmingham with a career in retail property procurement and development, and Savannah manages the family’s local short-term vacation rental properties. The Johnson’s goal is to continue on their path of building a well-run and profitable business that serves their family for generations to come.  

The front of their shop showcases their elegant window treatments and blinds from Hunter Douglas with free in-home consultations. They are also certified dealers and installers for Sonos audio systems. 

“We want to be the best local source for quality furnishings,” says Jill. “We want to be the trusted place where people buy the beautiful things they need for their home, whether it is indoor furniture, outdoor furniture, window treatments, lighting, accessories, even a housewarming gift for a friend. We want people to have an experience when they shop with us, from being greeted by our friendly, helpful and knowledgeable team, to just taking in the beauty around them.”

Meet Jill Johnson – Interior Designer, Entrepreneur & Preservationist

Jill Johnson grew up in Meadville, a small rural town in northwestern Pennsylvania. Her family name is Walton, which is very symbolic of the humble strength displayed in the American television family, The Waltons, combined with the entrepreneurial spirit of businessman, Sam Walton, from my hometown of Bentonville. 

“My family has lived on the same properties in Pennsylvania for over 200 years, with the original farmhouses still standing today. My dad was a pastor of a small church, and my mom was a stay-at-home mom. I am the second oldest of seven kids. The no.9 in our store name is a nod to my family of nine.”

At a very young age Jill had a strong appreciation for beauty, especially in flower gardening, architecture and interiors. “When I was seven, a neighbor gave me an old wallpaper sample book, and I wallpapered the walls of the wooden dollhouse my dad had made with the samples.  As I got a little older, I would pour over any home interiors magazine or book I could get my hands on and study the pictures, trying to decide what elements made a space beautiful and interesting. 

“My family didn’t have a lot of money at all, so when I wanted to decorate my room I had to get creative. I used a crate I found in my grandpa’s barn as a nightstand. I dried flowers I had picked on the side of the road and put them in a Mason jar. I learned to sew my own curtains, and eventually learned how to sew my own clothes, slipcovers, throw pillows and drapes. 

“I love antiques, and would go to small country auctions with my aunt and buy the little pieces that were in poor condition that no one else wanted. I remember my first piece was a wobbly, chipped up walnut side table I got for $6. I stripped it down, reglued and refinished it and put it in my bedroom.”

Meet Sam Johnson – Businessman, Real Estate Investor, Preservationist

Jill and Sam met while working at the same business in Chicago. Sam moved to Tennessee after he was offered a job working in administration at a toy manufacturer in Brentwood. They married in 1996, and Jill joined Sam here to begin a life together in Franklin. Jill states, “I had all four of our kids by the time I was 26! I was a stay-at-home mom and homeschooled them until middle school.

“As they got older, it began to sink in that just as they had arrived all at once, they would also leave home all at once! That threw me for a loop, and I began to wonder what I could do after they left. I wasn’t the type of girl that wanted to have lunch dates with friends every day. At the same time this internal struggle was going on, I was also working to decorate the custom home I had designed and we had built. 

“As I would shop locally, for furniture and accessories, I couldn’t find much that matched my personal style. At the time, shabby chic or a rustic, industrial look were what was most available, and I lean more to a clean, classic-meets-modern aesthetic. I began to think that if I liked a cleaner look, and couldn’t find what I was drawn to locally, surely I wasn’t the only one. 

“That’s when the idea of opening a store was birthed. I brought my idea to Sam, thinking that he would oppose it, but to my surprise, he didn’t! He had seen my struggle with moving into a new phase of life, and supported me in finding something fulfilling to do. 

‘“Sam had been involved in real estate investing for 20 years, so I think he was secretly thinking we would buy a building, I could have my ‘hobby job’ and get it out of my system, and at the end of the day, we would still own a building that we could rent out, and it would be a win-win.”

Storehouse no.9 Comes to Life in an Old Home

“It took us two years to find a building that would work for us in downtown Franklin, which is where we really wanted the store to be. It was a long and discouraging process. There just weren’t many commercial properties for sale at that time, and fewer that would work for our purposes.

“Then one day, in August of 2018, I saw a new listing on 4th Avenue North. There were no pictures of the inside. I drove to the address and sat in my car in front of a very ugly building. I called Sam and told him about it. He met me there, and as we stared at the front elevation.

The historic home was almost 100 years old, and had belonged to a family who were caretakers of the adjacent City Cemetery. Back in the day, they ran a “juke joint” across the street, which was later torn down in the 1940s after a flood destroyed the building. Over time, the home on 4^th Avenue North was converted to a retail store selling primitive and Colonial American furnishings and décor.

“Sam and I began to see that behind the hideous porch roof addition, the building had a salt box shape. Suddenly, there was potential! We could work with that. The inside was very, very choppy, with tiny rooms, nooks and hallways everywhere. We came up with a plan to open it all up and make it flow better. We purchased the building in August of 2018 and did all the work ourselves, in the evenings and weekends. The kids helped us after school. It took us nine months to get it ready, and we opened the doors of Storehouse no.9 in April of 2019.”

To Jill’s delight, the store took off and was very well-received. We love that Storehouse no.9 is a store within a restored old house. You can shop in person or online for exquisite home décor and gifts. As more of their family began to work with them, they needed more space than their 1,642 square feet on 4^th Ave North offered. So Sam began the hunt for a second location to receive and warehouse more furniture. 

Restoration Project no.2 – the old Franklin Laundry

“I had driven by the 252 5^th Avenue North building for over 25 years,” explains Sam. “I pitied its condition, and with even more loathing from 2018 on, because we operated our flagship store on the same block. We grew to a place in our business where we definitely needed warehousing and receiving space, and the 252 building looked like it could be an ideal location.

“Over a two-year period, I approached the owner several times asking if it could be purchased, but with no success. The parcel was being included in a master redevelopment plan for the entire area, which included many adjacent properties.

“That master plan eventually got denied by the City of Franklin, so the owner finally became interested in selling the building in 2021, after our 4^th Avenue store had operated for over two years.  The adjacent lot was not for sale, however, and that represented a deal-breaker for us, knowing what we knew about Franklin’s newer parking ordinances and requirements.  

“The roof structure in the rear of the building had fallen mostly to the ground, exposing the exterior by taking a large roll-up door down with it.  Part of the roof was hanging overhead. The building was extremely dangerous to enter.” The building has two large glass skylights that were designed to let the steam and heat out of the building from the laundry’s industrial equipment, but they were in terrible condition and leaked badly. The weathered glass was covered with green paint, and most of the glass was cracked or broken.

“With some arm twisting, the building owner eventually agreed to sell the two parcels together as one transaction, and we closed on the property in September of 2021. The building, at that moment, was in very, very bad shape.  

“Sadly, the City refused to grant us a partial building permit, and told us they needed a full set of architecturally stamped and certified plans before they would be issuing any permits. At that moment, we had no idea what we would end up doing with the building, or how it would be laid out. We were at a decision point. Do we sell the building, or do we just fix the roof with no permit, and buy some time?  

“Our insurance company refused to insure the property with the collapsed roof. I decided to fix the roof and doorways, without a permit. We did it fast in three days and got the building secured from wanderers and curious folks. A few days later I saw an envelope taped with blue masking tape to a couple of different doors on the building.  I knew exactly what it was…a City of Franklin citation.  

“Long story short, the City decided to press the issue, even after my appeal to common sense, and the Municipal Judge fined us $5,000 for working without a permit, which I had applied for, and was denied. From there, I began a cat-and-mouse game with the codes enforcers, while I replaced missing glass and soffits in order to evict the blackbird population that had taken over the building.

“Once I had it reasonably cleaned out and sealed up, we put the building up for lease, thinking that we could find a tenant for the front half, and we would use the back for warehousing. After several false starts with leasing, I began approaching the City about my quandary of not being able to bring the building up to codes.  It simply required too much of a spend – more than FEMA law allowed, and the City is responsible for enforcing FEMA law, locally.  

“I was told by City of Franklin staff that If they don’t enforce FEMA law, they could lose their own flood insurance coverage. The rule in a floodplain is that spending must be limited to 50% of a structure’s value (excluding the land value) in any five-year period, or you have to raise it up out of the floodplain. The building wasn’t worth much at all, and half of that value wasn’t even close to enough room to renovate it. It needed everything.

Historic Zoning Commission to the Rescue

“We wanted to save the building, but we weren’t allowed to do it. I decided to press the issue with the city by applying for a demolition permit. I had spoken to the Historic Zoning Commission several times about the building, and they very much wanted to keep the structure intact. My turn came up in the HZC meeting, and I pled my case for wanting (not really) to tear the building down.  

“As I expected, they voted unanimously, ‘No’. Standing there in front of the board members, I said, ‘So, let me get this straight…this board won’t let me tear it down, and the Planning Department across the hall won’t let me fix it up, so what am I, or anyone else, supposed to do with it? You all need to figure this out!’ After a long silence, one of the board members, Brian Laster, suggested, ‘Isn’t there something the City can do legally involving an exemption for historic preservation purposes?’ No one knew the answer to that, but the board chair promised he would look into it.

“I followed up with the Historic Zoning Commission by email a few days later, and within about two weeks, I received a reply that copied a whole bunch of email addresses including the legal department. Their email was our turning point. They had worked with FEMA attorneys and figured out a way to issue a single floodplain development permit, one time, to spend as much as required on the building to bring it up to codes! One shot, one chance, one permit.

“Our troubles weren’t over, because we still didn’t know what we would use the building for. Retail and restaurant tenants continued to be blinded by the building’s condition, even with the spending limit waiver. We applied for an event venue use case with limited sketches, but that concept failed with the city within a short time, due to parking requirements. 

“Long story short, we began to ask ourselves that since it is a floodplain, why wouldn’t outdoor pool and patio furniture be a good choice? After all, if we did experience rising water, we just wash everything off and keep going. We decided to do it.  We opened an extension of our interior goods store, and call it Storehouse no.9 – Outdoor.

“Historic Franklin Doesn’t Get Saved by Accident”

“We went to work with our draftsman, Arthur ‘Opp’ Guenard, getting plans laid out for the new space. After seven iterations with the city, we were finally permitted to begin construction in January 2024.”

Former Heritage Foundation Director and local preservationist, Mary Pearce, always says, “Historic Franklin doesn’t get saved by accident. We have to work together to protect our historic resources.”

One of the biggest challenges was removing old paint from all the windows by hand. The original windows where blue hammered glass, and over time were replaced when broken with various styles of clear glass. Today, these windows are one of the most spectacular features of the store and create a beautiful mosaic overlooking Rest Haven Cemetery, where many of Franklin’s founding citizens are now buried,

The Johnsons finished construction and received a Certificate of Occupancy on July 29, 2024. Nine days later, Sam celebrated his 50^th birthday with a few friends and mostly family in their new outdoor furniture showroom. The timing could not have been more perfect.

“The brands we carry are the best of the best, and even though it is a bigger initial investment, they will stand the test of time,” says Jill. “Like the saying goes, ‘Buy the best, and you will only cry once.’ It is also important to us to offer competitive pricing, so we are always making sure that is the case, and we aren’t beaten on price either by other stores or the internet.”

Historic Downtown Franklin Has Our Heart

“Franklin is very dear to us,’ says Jill. “It is where we made the intentional decision almost 30 years ago to put down our roots and let them grow deep. It’s where we decided we wanted to have and raise our kids. It’s where we felt there would be an opportunity for them here if they, too, decided to make Franklin home when they grew up.

“We very much love and appreciate the history and beauty that surrounds us every day here, but all of that wouldn’t even be the same, if it weren’t for so many really, really great people that live and work here. As much as Franklin has grown, it still has for us that small town feel where everywhere we go we see friends and people we know.”

Honoring the History of Franklin Laundry

It’s very important to Sam and Jill that they honor the history of the original Franklin Laundry that called the building home for over 50 years. When you enter the space, there are small relics from the past including the original breaker boxes, now decommissioned but left in place for the public to see. It’s fun to see how much power was needed to run all the commercial equipment for the laundry. Next to these panels, Sam installed a television that features video footage from the laundry back in the 1940-50s.

One of Franklin Laundry’s most devoted employees was William Gentry. He worked there for over 45 years starting as delivery truck driver and later plant superintendent. William was the brother of Coach Jimmy Gentry and member of Franklin’s beloved Gentry family.

William Gentry’s daughter, Janis, shared the photo above of Franklin Laundry during the 1950s.

Front Row: Evelyn Hoover, Myrtle Conners, Jewel King, Minerva Chairs, Rena Beasley, Mrs. Jackson.

Second Row: Bessie Grimes, Nellie Buchanan, (unknown), Gertrude Long, Rebecca Lane, Mary McGlocklin, Elizabeth Carothers, Blanch Fleming.

Third Row: Mary Beasley, (unknown), Mrs. Davis, Versi Pierce, Elise Jackson, Katherine Johnson, Maude Scruggs, George Kinnard, Robert Carter, Charles Dixon.

Back Row: Doug Kincaid, William Gentry, Jimmy Davis, George Vaughn, J. C. Anderson (owner), Lee Mayberry, Berry Noland.

In the restoration of the building, Sam discovered this small handprint in the concrete. They believe it was made by J. Clark “Bill” Anderson, the son of owner J.C. Anderson. It is a sweet reminder as you enter the showroom of the incredible history this building holds. It touched thousands of lives in our community from employment to delivering clean clothes and pressed linens.

Lovely Franklin honors Sam and Jill’s remarkable story of perseverance and faith. It is an inspiration to us all. Their meticulous restoration of this historic building is a true preservation triumph, and we wish them all the success in the world.

Stop by both Storehouse no.9 locations and see these beautiful stores. Shopping downtown Franklin and supporting local families keeps our lovely town vibrant and prosperous.

Enjoy this fun 1942-1952 video featuring the Franklin Laundry. It a throwback to simpler times.

Thank you as always to Williamson County Historian Rick Warwick for allowing us access to his collection of historic photos. We also appreciate Victoria Pewitt Photography and her beautiful photography of Storehouse no.9 – Outdoor.

Sharing the backstories of historic Franklin with love,

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